Pat Jordan

"My father's name was Pasquale Giordano. Or Patsy Giordano. Or Patsy Jordan. Or Patrick Michaele Jordan. Like everything about his life, even his name was elusive."So begins My Father's Con, a Memoir, by Pat Jordan, the octogenarian former pro baseball prospect-considered for a time to be one of the hardest throwing pitchers in the minor leagues-who later became an award-winning sportswriter. Jordan is the author of a dozen books, including A False Spring, a bittersweet memoir of his baseball career, ranked #37 on Sports Illustrated's Top 100 Sports Books of All Time.Now, with the elegant ease of a craftsman who has worked at his trade every day for nearly sixty years, Jordan tries to make sense of his life before and after baseball, starting with the story of his father-a grifter and gambler who would come to be known in his dotage as Il Professore, the professor emeritus of con.An accounting of an extraordinary life, lived beneath the long shadow of "the exquisite perfection of my father's con."

In A Nice Tuesday, Pat Jordan chronicles his decision to reclaim the failed potential of his youth. A young baseball pitcher of inordinate promise, Jordan had been one of the Milwaukee Braves first "bonus babies." His struggle through the minor leagues and ultimate failure to play in the majors, eloquently chronicled in A False Spring, defined his youth. At fifty-six, Jordan realizes that "this trivial thing" has also defined his life and decides to make a comeback. He whips himself back into playing condition and convinces an independent minor-league team, the Waterbury (Connecticut) Spirit, to let him return to the mound one last time. In this memoir, Jordan lays bare his midlife quest with honesty and humor, making A Nice Tuesday about much more than baseball.

In A False Spring, Pat Jordan traces the falling star of his once-promising pitching career, illuminating along the way his equally difficult personal struggles and quest for maturity. When the reader meets Jordan, he is a hard-throwing pitcher with seemingly limitless potential, one of the first "bonus babies" for the Milwaukee Braves organization. Jordan's sojourn through the lower levels of minor-league ball takes him through the small towns of America: McCook, Waycross, Davenport, Eau Claire, and Palatka. As the promised land of the majors recedes because of his inconsistency and lack of control, the young man who had previously known only glory and success is forced to face himself.

Details steps in the pitching sequence, illustrates errors commonly made by pitchers, and provides instruction in an assortment of pitches to suit specific situations